AI readiness & litigation preparedness

Governance built by a litigator, so it holds up when opposing counsel tests it.

• AI use policies and governance that people actually follow
• Preservation and legal-hold protocols for prompts, outputs, and agent logs
• Discoverability and privilege strategy for AI-generated material
• Shadow-AI audits that find the tools in use before a litigant does
• AI vendor terms covering data use, retention, and indemnity

For general counsel, compliance, IT, and security leaders.

AI-enabled legal operations

Practical adoption from practitioners who use these tools daily in active matters.

• Tool selection and evaluation against your real workflows
• Workflow design for drafting, review, and matter management
• Custom agent builds for contract review, briefing, and research
• Training for lawyers and legal teams, from first use to advanced
• Measuring what changed: time, cost, and quality

For legal departments, legal ops teams, and law firms.

Choose what you need

Every retainer is built around the services you select. Pick from the list below, and add or drop services as your needs change.

• Drafting and negotiating in-licenses, out-licenses, and cross-licenses
• IP terms in partnerships, joint development agreements, and JVs
• Portfolio strategy aligned with your product roadmap
• Global IP strategy, with access to a network of international partners curated over decades of practice
• IP risk management and dispute resolution
• IP diligence for financings, acquisitions, and major customers
• Selecting and managing outside patent prosecution counsel

For founders, CTOs, general counsel, and legal teams at technology companies of any size.

How it works

No hourly billing to track. We agree on one fixed monthly amount, sized to your expected deal flow, so you have budget certainty from the start.

1. Pick your services and scope the work

   We agree on the services you need and look at the licensing, partnership, and diligence work you expect in the year ahead.

2. Set a fixed monthly fee

   One predictable amount covers that expected work, so IP counsel is a line item you can plan around.

3. Review it regularly

   Our first scope assessment comes two months in. After that, we meet quarterly or annually, timed to your budgeting cycle, to confirm the services and fee still fit your deal flow and that you're getting the value you expect for what you pay. How our pricing works

Unusually large matters, such as a contested negotiation or a major diligence sprint, can be scoped separately, with a fixed fee where possible.

Strategy

• Second opinions on case strategy, early case assessment, and settlement value
• Global forum strategy across U.S. and European venues
• Coordinating parallel proceedings so they help rather than undercut each other

Cost control

• Monthly review of outside counsel invoices, so you're free to focus on advising your business
• Budgets set up front, with phase-by-phase oversight as the case moves
• For larger matters, running a competitive bid across multiple firms, from request for proposal through final selection
• Alternative fee arrangements that tie cost to results

Why we don't bill by the hour

The billable hour rewards time spent, not problems solved. It makes cost unknowable until the invoice arrives, and it makes every call to your lawyer feel like a meter starting. None of that serves predictability, certainty, or value.

The hourly model frustrates lawyers, too. It's a common complaint across traditional firms: the hours were never what made the work rewarding. What makes legal work satisfying is solving real problems for clients, with no gap between the value a lawyer believes they delivered and the value the client sees. When an invoice is rooted in problems solved, both sides can stand behind it.

We'll bill hourly only if a client specifically asks us to.

How a new engagement works

1. Scope discussion

   We start with a conversation about what you need: the matters, deals, and questions we expect to handle together.

2. A fixed fee for the first three months

   Based on that scope, we agree on one fixed monthly amount for the first three months.

3. A check-in at two months

   On day one, we schedule a scope assessment for two months in, so we can compare the real work to the plan and adjust the fee if needed.

4. Regular reviews after that

   From then on, we hold scope assessments quarterly or annually, whichever suits you, so both you and Gandiva stay comfortable with the arrangement.

Inside a scope assessment

Each assessment follows the same structure, so it takes little of your time and nothing gets missed.

• The work we handled since the last review, compared with the plan
• What's coming in the next period, including new matters, deals, or projects
• The fee going forward: confirm it, raise it, or lower it
• Your feedback: what we're doing well, what we can improve, and whether the fee matches the value you see

Something to show management

After each assessment, you receive a short written summary of the work delivered, the value it created, and the fee for the next period. It's written so you can forward it when someone asks what the legal budget is buying.

Unusually large matters, such as a major negotiation or a competitive bid process, can be scoped separately, with a fixed fee wherever possible.